Friday, April 25, 2008

"Gal" Friday (& Classic Cutie)! Hazel Court

British actress Hazel Court passed away from a heart attack on April 15, 2008, near her home at Lake Tahoe at the age of 82. She had made a name for herself in film & television comedy roles, when she began appearing in various Hammer Horror films in the 1950's & 60's.

Her genre roles in films included: Devil Girl From Mars, The Curse of Frankenstein, Dr. Blood's Coffin, The Premature Burial, The Raven, The Masque of the Red Death and her brief final movie appearance in Omen III: The Final Conflict.

On the small screen, Hazel was in Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Twelve O'Clock High, Mission: Impossible, Dr. Kildare and The Twilight Zone.

Her autobiography, Hazel Court - Horror Queen, which was previously published in Britain, is due for release in the United States in 2008.

How it all began ....

In 1933, publishers at Eastern Color Press, intent to make better use of their printing equipment (which frequently sat idle between jobs), came up with the idea of printing an 8-page comic section that could be folded down from the large broadsheet to a smaller 9-inch by 12-inch format. The result was the first modern comic book. Containing reprints of newspaper comic strips, this experimental comic book titled "Funnies On Parade" was given away for free. It proved so popular that the following year Eastern published "Famous Funnies" and took the bold step of selling the comic for ten cents through chain stores. The enterprise was a smashing success and Eastern began churning out numerous reprints on a monthly basis. Other publishers, eager to get in on the profits, jumped on the bandwagon and the comic book industry was born!